The Italian team Roma have claimed that Bayer Leverkusen would have an unfair edge in their Europa League semi-final match. Serie A have decided that the Giallorossi would play the last 18 minutes of their postponed match against Udinese on April 25.
Following a second-half collapse by Roma defender Evan Ndicka, the match against Udinese on April 14 was postponed; Serie A decided to postpone the rest of the match for Thursday.
The two sides will meet again on April 25 in Udine to finish up last weekend’s encounter. This is necessary since interrupted matches are required by law to be concluded within 15 days after they were interrupted.
But the rub is that the Rome-based side have a busy schedule next week, with matches against Bologna and Napoli. Nevertheless, they had hoped for a mid-May conclusion to the match.
Following Monday’s encounter against Bologna, the team will travel to Napoli. That game’s start time is still up in the air, though. Then, on May 2, they will play Bayer Leverkusen in the opening leg of their Europa League semifinal.
What did Roma say?
“AS Roma with its results and four consecutive European semi-finals contributed to UEFA ranking and thus five slots for Italian teams in the next edition of the Champions League”, they said in a statement.
“Despite that, [Serie A] President [Lorenzo] Casini took today an unfair decision, as it holds, against AS Roma forcing us to face Bayer 04 Leverkusen at disadvantage. This is a clear backwards step for the whole of Italian football.”
Daniele De Rossi’s outfit stated their intention to combat what it saw as an “unjustified hardship”. However, they fell short in outlining their strategy for doing so.
The team from the capital presently holds the fifth slot in Serie A, which is the only Champions League berth available to clubs in that category. In spite of this, they face competition for a spot in Europe’s premier club tournament from both Bologna and…
Source link : https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/roma-slam-serie-a-for-facing-bayer-leverkusen-at-disadvantage/
Author : Martina Alcheva
Publish date : 2024-04-20 17:37:28
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